Jazz as a music genre originated in the African-American community in the southern part of USA in the early 20th century, combining African and European musical styles. The origin of the word jazz is unclear, one of the explanations is that it is a distortion of the name of the perfume Jas(mine), popular at the time in New Orleans, the cradle of jazz. However let’s take this explanation with a slight exaggeration.
Jazz as a musical form came to Prague only in its beginnings rather slowly. The first reference made to jazz probably comes from the title of the song Wentery Jazz composed in 1919 by Otakar Samko. However, in this early phase of jazz in Prague, more or less all contemporary music that had a rhythmic component, was called jazz.
During this difficult time, a group of composers (including Jaroslav Ježek) decided to ask the chairman of the Association of Visual Artists Mánes, Emil Fil, for the possibility of organizing concerts in the Mánes building. This was a revolutionary idea at the time, it was not common to hold concerts outside of concert halls. Emil Fila supported this idea and hence the Mánesa music group was formed. This tradition lasted until the beginning of World War II and it is the same tradition that Jazz Dinner in Mánes follows up on. Lastly, we would like to point out that we will perform on the restored Steinway concert grand piano, which was also played by Jaroslav Ježek himself.
V této nelehké situaci se skupina hudebních autorů (ve které byl i Jaroslav Ježek) rozhodla požádat předsedu spolku výtvarných umělců Mánes, Emila Filu o možnost pořádání koncertů v budově Mánesu. Toto byla ve své době revoluční myšlenka, nebylo zvykem pořádat koncerty jinde než v koncertních síních. Emil Fila tuto myšlenku podpořil a tím vznikla hudební skupina Mánesa. Na tuto tradici, která trvala až do začátku 2. světové války, navazuje Jazzová večeře v Mánesu. Na závěr snad ještě podotkneme, že hrát budeme na restaurované koncertní křídlo Steinway, na které hrával i samotný Jaroslav Ježek.
All booked tickets can be rebooked up to 3 days before the performance date or exchanged for a voucher.
